Pain Is The Touchstone of Growth

For a newborn
baby it is painful coming out of the womb into this life, but we all
know what excitement and joy awaits the new born baby and its pain
is a necessary experience to get to the real part of experiencing
life. When a baby starts to grow teeth, it hurts (both the baby and
the parents), but the teeth need to come through so it can eat and
sustain itself throughout life. And so on it goes; Pain, Development,
and Reward.

The emotional, mental and spiritual realms operate on the same principle, we feel pain, we change and we grow to experience a newer happiness and fulfilment. Pain is the touchstone of change and is our greatest friend and teacher, although we usually don’t think so and do everything in our power to avoid it. Here lies a little secret, there is one pain in this life that we can legitimately avoid without any negative consequences whatsoever and it’s a pain that out shadows all other pains and that pain is:

THE PAIN OF AVOIDING PAIN!

At certain times in our lives we have we have all experienced the ‘Pain of Avoiding Pain’ whether its staying in a painful relationship because we are scared of the fear-pain of being on our own or simply putting up without toothache unnecessarily because we are afraid of the pain of getting it fixed. Whatever pain we are avoiding we find most times that the avoidance pain becomes far worse that the pain we are actually trying to avoid.

Life Includes Pain – Accept It & Befriend It
Half the battle of getting somewhere in life were we can feel at ease and have some peace of mind and contentment is directly related to accepting that life INCLUDES pain, its not all of life by a long shot but at times we all have to experience painful aspects of life that, if acted on intelligently, lead us to a better way of living and of experiencing life. The loss of a loved one is a very painful experience indeed. It can completely overshadow any goodness and joy life still holds, however if we can manage to intelligently work through the loss and accept it we can eventually start to enjoy life again with perhaps a more appreciative attitude than before. We might not experience any movement physically but emotionally and spiritually we could be lifted, (through experiencing the pain of loss), to new heights of self and life awareness. We may gain new insights and empathy that could help others who experience the same loss.

Befriending Pain And Learn To Act Intelligently
One of the best attitudes you can take is to learn to befriend pain, listen to it and act on it, use it as your best guidance tool for living your life. Learn to see pain as your ally and not your foe as it is the one thing that will tell you the truth about a person, experience or situation. Pain comes in many forms from being slightly uncomfortable to experiencing excruciating soul wrenching pain. Pain does not judge, it simply is and its goal is to help you move on emotionally, spiritually and physically.

By befriending pain and learning to acknowledge and act on its small
appearances in daily life you can avoid the larger doses later on.
For example you may get a slight discomfort in your tooth and if you
go to the dentist straight away you can avoid the traumatic pain of
an abscess later on. Or you might act in a way that leaves you feeling
mildly uncomfortable and if you listen to the pain and act
intelligently on it you can avoid acting like that again therefore
avoiding that pain. However if you don’t listen and act intelligently
you are likely to repeat the action that caused the uncomfortableness
and it will grow and grow with each time to perform the same action
until being you becomes unbearable without a an anaesthetic, many
substance misusers are people who do not know how to act intelligently
to the pain they feel inside.

If you are experiencing pain caused by loss, rejection or by an unforeseen circumstance I can help by working with you to help you manage, understand and learn from what you are going through. If it’s a simple listening ear or you want help to move on call me today and see how I can help you achieve growth from pain.